Pairing one of today’s most gifted jazz guitarists (Anthony Pirog) with one of rock ‘n’ roll’s fiercest rhythm sections (Brendan Canty and Joe Lally) was always going to be a recipe for success, but on their sophomore LP Anthropocosmic Nest, Washington, D.C.’s The Messthetics are blowing past the old goals and delivering one of the most raucous and satisfying releases of the year. Wildly inventive with surprises awaiting the listener at every turn, Nest is an ecstatic proclamation of skronk-and-circumstance that says not only are The Messthetics BACK, but they’re here to stay!

Most stars aren’t born, they’re carefully crafted fiction. They matter only as a measure of distraction if the lie that got them there doesn’t result in some kind of long-lasting “good.” And Rock and Roll has seen its share of philistines and false prophets. But that wasn’t Prince. So when he died in 2017, there was a hole blown in the universe in the same place that was still only just filling in from the loss of David Bowie.